Straight Outta Oz

Earlier this summer, Wicked — a 180-degree shift of the plot and morality of The Wizard of Oz — gained a digital cousin, when Toddrick Hall posted his Straight Outta Oz to YouTube. The hour-long visual album reimagines the protagonist as a young, black man from small town Texas who travels to the emerald, smoggy haze of Oz Angeles. Hall, a Broadway actor and YouTuber at heart, pulls from his own life and shows an impressive depth in genre, melding show tunes, hip-hop and R&B in his take on L. Frank Baum’s 116-year-old novel. If Wicked and Hall’s pageviews are any indication, Straight Outta Oz should have a long performing life after this inaugural tour.